Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Cassette Review: Lime Forest "Like Liquid" (Custom Made Music)

There exists this period of music that I don't really write about because it's not easy for me to describe. During the 1990's there were these bands who had radio hits but were only seen as having that "one hit" while the rest of their album was much better than that single song played on the radio. I often think of this as being bands like Blind Melon ("No Rain"), Superdrag ("Sucked Out"), Dandelion ("Whatever"), 1000 Mona Lisas ("You Oughtta Know") and even Marcy Playground ("Sex and Candy"). As I type this, I think of more-- like Hum ("Stars").

But there is this other group of similar artists who aren't as dark and grunge-like feeling. Bands like Porno for Pyros (Who I realize the history of, but I still feel only really had one radio hit) and that New Radicals band who sang about how you only get what you give. I've not really explored some of those artists (such as New Radicals, The Verve Pipe and Vertical Horizon) much beyond their one radio song but I imagine they have this alternate universe genre to where I put bands like I mentioned in the first paragraph and maybe if I listened to their full albums now I'd like them.

In a lot of ways, I like to think that a band like Lime Forest could fall into this sort of genre. I'm not saying I would have heard a song of theirs on the radio in the late '90s and then not listened to their full album, but it is nice to be reminded of a time in my youth that I often forget about for some reason. From bits of Pink Floyd and something closer to post-punk even, the songs can also become slower, sadder somehow and yet have a xylophone (or bells) in them. Like someone mixed Schatzi with The Cure.

At the same time, I can hear fuzzy pop elements like a mixture of The Beatles and something else. But this does have that music over lyrics feel to it in the sense that there are more guitar parts for you to become engrossed in than there are lyrics. Still, the lyrics are there and worth noting still because at one point he does admit he starts fires and not in a Billy Joel way. Overall this cassette just spans all other sorts of genres of rock cassettes and as such should be listened to by pretty much everyone.